This year, I was honored to be the Faculty Speaker at Graduation. I will post the speech for a few weeks, but if you are unable to access it and would like to have a copy, please feel free to contact me at school.
Mrs. Northouse's Graduation Speech:
Dr. Gellert, Mr. Bryant, my esteemed colleagues, parents, former students, and Class of 2008, Good Morning! It is undeniably my greatest honor to have the opportunity to speak with you today. I have been told that I am the very first female teacher to do this here at GC, and, ladies, I hope I make you proud.
I only have a few things that I would like to share with you today. I know that you have a very big day ahead of you, and I am the last person on earth who would ask you to wait a moment longer than necessary to start cutting into all of those fabulous cakes. Today is one of the greatest days of your life because it finally celebrates the transition between your life as a child and your life as a young adult. For some of you, this has already been an incredibly rewarding journey. For others, this road that you have traveled has been a bit more difficult and may have been a long time in coming. You all deserve to be here, and you deserve to celebrate all that you have accomplished over the past 12 or 13 years, so it is with great pleasure that I say to you all, Congratulations!
Like many others in this room, I have very few although fond memories of my own high school graduation ceremony. I would describe these memories as faint, distant dreams more than Kodak moments. I remember what dress I wore under my gown, and I vividly remember where my family sat during the ceremony. (And, in case any of you were wondering, this was during the days before my father started wearing cowboy boots on a regular basis.) Like so many of you, I remember telling myself over and over again, “Don’t trip and fall. You are wearing a sleeveless dress and a white gown, Jeni. DO NOT FALL DOWN.” There are only a few pictures from that day in our photo albums and none of them were with my best friends. So, my first piece of graduation advice to you is that you find your best friends immediately after the ceremony and you pose for a group picture before any of you take off your caps and gowns. Because believe me, ladies, you are not going to want to try to put this thing back on your head again if you don’t have to. Secondly, take a moment sometime during the ceremony to look around and really soak in the moment. Study everything around you, look closely at the people sitting to your right and your left, and tell yourself that you will remember this moment. Choose something about this ceremony to remember for the next twenty, forty, sixty or even eighty years. My last little piece of GRADUATION advice is that you make a beeline to anyone you want to thank or bid farewell because you will never be in the same room with all of these people again – ever - in your life. Yes, you might have some really great reunions, but despite everyone’s best efforts, not everyone will come, and, more than likely, the people you assume will always be there will be the same people about whom you’ll spend the rest of your life wondering, “Whatever happened to Cory Book?”
Today, you are all beginning an incredible journey—a journey that will start the moment you walk or roll out of this building. Not everyone’s journeys will lead you down the same paths. Some of you will continue your formal education by starting college classes this fall. Others of you will be joining the military. Some of you will enter the workforce in the next few weeks, but the moment you receive your diploma, no matter what your plans are for the future, your duties to this country and its citizens begins. Tom Brokaw, an incredible, award-winning news reporter once told a group of college graduates, “You are educated. Your certification is your degree. You may think of it as the ticket to the good life. Let me ask you to think of an alternative. Think of it as your ticket to change the world.” Although you are not receiving your college degrees today, his challenge is still applicable to you.
Charles Dudley Warner, an American essayist and Puritan novelist of the 1800s once said, “There is no moment of delight in any pilgrimage like the beginning of it.” As many of you know, I travel quite a bit these days, and nothing excites me more than the anticipation of experiencing something new when I travel— discovering a new favorite restaurant, finding the perfect pair of sunglasses or flip flops, trying out a new ride at our favorite theme park or looking for a new favorite place to stick my feet in the sand. But these journeys, no matter how much I plan ahead, are not without some risks. I have found that, in reality, the best restaurants nearly always have a long wait or a slow server, that while video recording a ride on your favorite roller coaster, a new pair of sunglasses can just as easily fall off of your head as an old pair, and that even the world’s best flip flops can cause blisters if you wade more than three miles in shallow water in order to avoid the hot sand. Life is not without its risks.
Mr. Oliver asked me a few weeks ago what I wanted to say to you today. I told him, “I want to tell them to get off the couch and do something this summer.” Actually, I think I used different words, but the jist of what I said goes right along with an old proverb I found that says, “You cannot get to the top by sitting on your bottom.” If I have noticed anything over the past four years about the Class of 2008, it is that this class has the potential for greatness – not laziness. The students on this stage and on this floor below us have a lot of wonderful, challenging, and rewarding work to do in the future… you are all full of enthusiasm, ideas, drive, and passion. Keep that momentum going as you begin the pilgrimage of your new lives. MY challenge to you is, simply, this: Do not waste this summer waiting until you start school, go off to the military, or find a job to really start living these new lives and contributing to a society that needs you right now.
E. B. White, best known as the author of Stewart Little and Charlotte’s Web once said, “I get up every morning determined to both change the world and to have one [heck] of a good time.” What could be more fun and rewarding than getting all of your friends together this summer to do something for the common good? Think about that. We have taught you to become leaders, we have seen you lead, so go out there and do it. Never in your lives will you have more time, energy, and resources than you do this summer. Never again will you all be more free of responsibility than you are right now.
Mark Twain tells his readers, “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do.” So, rather than sitting at home “taking the summer off,” how about trying something new? Lead a project team, read inspiring books, spend several days job shadowing, and if you have to start working right away, then work hard and do a great job, but use your time wisely. You know that I would love to tell you to drive or even fly out of town and explore this great big, wonderful world of ours, but, the truth is, especially with the cost of fuel these days, you don’t have to leave the city of Greenfield to make your summer meaningful; however, as much as you are going to want to, you can’t sit on the couch and do it either. Helen Keller, a woman who chose to leave the familiarity and comforts of home, once wrote that “Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.”
So what will you do? Will you let this summer pass through your fingers like the old sand cliche? Are you waiting until this fall to allow your new, “responsible” life to begin? Or will you make the most of this summer, this fabulous first summer that could set the tone for the rest of your adult life? I know I would let Ms. Jenkins down if I didn’t throw a quotation in from one of our favorite poets. In the poem, “To Be of Use,” Marge Piercy describes the people she loves best, those who “jump into work head first without dallying in the shallows.” She explains that she wants to be “with people who submerge in the task, who go into the fields to harvest and work in a row” and that the “thing worth doing well done has a shape that satisfies.” “The pitcher,” she says, “cries for water to carry and a person for work that is real.”
So, make it REAL. Make your lives worth it, and find something important to do with your down-time so that when people ask you what you with your lives, you have some incredible stories to tell. Because I will tell you what, nothing would make any of us more proud. As you begin to make some critical decisions and start to wonder about where that road of life will lead you, remember these words from one of my favorite Dr. Seuss books, entitled, Oh, the Places You’ll Go!: “You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose. You’re on your own. And you know what you know. You are the guy who’ll decide where to go.” So, take some great pictures, savor this moment, say all of your thank yous and goodbyes, then go cut your cakes, stay off the couches, follow your hearts, and let your journeys begin. Thank you! I wish you the best of luck, may God bless you, and congratulations, Class of 2008!
I will be at school today for a little while if you are interested in coming in to pick up your research papers. I could use some help moving stuff around, so I might put you to work if you come in. :)
I should be in by 10:00 and don't know how long I will stay. I'm hitching a ride with my dad, so it probably won't be more than a few hours. Feel free to send me an email if you think you might come by.
See you soon?
Mrs. Northouse
B1 - Completed Final Presentations. Collected books.
B1 - Your Research Papers are completed. I will be here until 4pm if you would like to come and pick yours up. Otherwise, I will mail what I have left on Tuesday.
ALL GRADES ARE COMPLETE IN B1, B2, and B3!!!!!!!!! WOO-HOO!!!!!!!!!
ALL GRADES ARE COMPLETE IN G3 and G4. WOO-HOO!!!!!!!!
I am still working on the research papers for G2. I will get them finished as soon as I can. You can come and pick them up today by 4:00, come find me on Tuesday sometime, or I will mail it home to you after Tuesday.
HAVE A GREAT SUMMER! :)
B1 - Completed Final Presentations. Collected books.
B1 - Your Research Papers are completed. I will be here until 4pm if you would like to come and pick yours up. Otherwise, I will mail what I have left on Tuesday.
ALL GRADES ARE COMPLETE IN B1, B2, and B3!!!!!!!!! WOO-HOO!!!!!!!!!
ALL GRADES ARE COMPLETE IN G3 and G4. WOO-HOO!!!!!!!!
I am still working on the research papers for G2. I will get them finished as soon as I can. You can come and pick them up today by 4:00 or I will mail it home to you after Tuesday.
HAVE A GREAT SUMMER! :)
G2 - Completed Final Presentations. Collected books.
G3 and G4 - Final Exams. Collected books.
I am still grading the Final Drafts of the research paper for G2.......
B2 - Final Presentations. All books are due today. Passed back several final drafts of the research paper. I will continue to grade and finish this class before starting on the next set. Students should receive their papers back from me by the end of the week.
B3 - Returned ALL final drafts of the Trend Analysis paper. Final Presentations. Students who took the course for credit from IU were asked to complete an evaluation form and provide email addresses for follow-up from IU. Students taking the course for IU credit will be receiving an official looking grade sheet from me in the next couple of days. This will show them what grade I am sending to IU.
I HAVE REALLY ENJOYED THESE TWO CLASSES! HAVE AN AWESOME SUMMER! :)
G2 - Final Presentations. Turn in your books after your presentation.
G3 and G4 - Passed back all graded work. Gave students a 4-page review sheet for the final exam. I told them that if they studied the material on the review sheet, they should be set for the final. Everything they need to know is on that review sheet. The test will be multiple choice and matching. It will include the Vocabulary for lists 3-4 from The Odyssey.
B1 and B2 - Final Presentations. Turn in books after your presentation.
B3 - Final Trend Analysis paper DUE. Final Presentations.
B1 and B2 - Final Presentations. Turn in books after your presentation.
B3 - Final Trend Analysis paper DUE. Final Presentations.
G2 - Started presentations today. Students who presented turned in books. Assignment: Work on your presentations for next week.
Parents and Students, please see the note posted on May 15 regarding the grading of the Research Paper.
G3 and G4 - Finished The Odyssey in class today! :) There were 4 sections that we read and discussed in class along with 4 worksheets to go with them. I collected all of that as well as the two vocabulary worksheets for today. The vocabulary for lists 3-4 will be part of the final Exam next week. I will give the vocab. back to study when we meet for review on Tuesday. Assignment: Finish up worksheets, get caught up on absent work, etc.
G4 - SSR time.
